“Please,” she whispered. Her feet slid up to my ass and her heels dug in.

She was needing it.

“You’re fuckin’ beautiful,” I said, cupping her face as I started moving inside her, hips thrusting as my other hand held her thigh. Her mouth right there. “Fuckin’ mine. All this beauty. I’m takin’ it, babe, and you’re givin’ it.”

“Yes,” she moaned. I felt her hot breath on my tongue.

“Givin’ me somethin’ you never gave, aren’t you?”

“Yes, Jamie.”

“Never gave this.” My hips pumped harder. Tori’s legs spread wider and her breath caught. “He never fuckin’ had this,” I growled. “Never touched it. Never came close to what I’m touchin’.”

“Yes!” she cried out. Her fingers dug into my neck. “Oh, God, Jamie!”

I took my hand off her thigh and slid it up her stomach, grabbing her breast. I thumbed her nipple. I pinched and twisted it.

She moaned, tipped her chin up, and crashed her mouth against mine. Her tongue slid past my lips, dipped into my mouth, and tasted while I fucked her.

My hips were pounding. I was jarring her body so hard Tori was falling back, spreading her arms wide, and knocking shit off the counter.

Bowls. Sheet trays. Food. Didn’t matter. She didn’t care and neither did I.

I kept it up, fucking her deep every time. Sinking home again and again. Staring at her tits as they bounced. Her small, pink nipples. Her lips, parted and wet. Her stomach as it clenched beneath my fingers and the curve of her waist. Never wanting to stop. Never wanting to forget what this felt like and how she was looking at me, so fucking hot, so turned on, but with mad, crazy, fucked-in-the-head love. Love for me. Only me.

Never gave him that. Never came close to giving it.

This was mine.

I yanked her up so I could suck on her nipples, wetting her entire breast and dragging my tongue between them, pulling away and then getting jerked back again with her fingers in my hair. She rubbed her tits in my face.

I growled and fucked her harder.

Tori giggled through a moan. Her hips started jerking on the edge of the counter, lifting up and grinding down.

My groin throbbed.

I was going to come.

“Jamie,” Tori whimpered. Her legs tightened. I felt her back arch away from my hand and her mouth open on my cheek. “Oh, God. Please don’t stop. Please. Please …” She started shaking.

Her warm, slick pussy clenched around my dick as she moaned yes yes yes.

I forgot how to breathe. Hips thrusting, my orgasm raced after hers. I felt desperate. I couldn’t stop.

“Fuck,” I panted, pumping two … four … five times and then, “Ah, God, fuck, I’m comin’. I’m comin’.”

A jagged groan escaped my mouth as I yanked her close, buried deep, and finished inside her. The muscles in my legs and arms twitched. I felt Tori’s warm breath tickle my neck and her fingers stroke up and down my spine.

She wouldn’t let go of me.

“Babe,” I rasped, hearing the alarm on the oven.

No fucking idea how long that had been going off.

Tori collapsed back, not caring about it, and pulled me down on top of her. And I went. I sure as fuck didn’t care about anything else but this right now.

Her. Us.

I was never letting go either.

She held me close, limbs circling my back as our chests matched with racing breaths. Her fingers in my hair. Her lips moving over my ear.

“This feels like forever,” she whispered.

I closed my eyes, thinking the same. The alarm kept sounding.

Pizza was ordered an hour later and eaten with her sides—roasted potatoes, all-day green beans, and biscuits.

We tossed the burnt-up pork chops in the trash.

Chapter Twenty-one

TORI

I blinked at my bedroom ceiling as Jamie dozed beside me, his breath warm and sleep-heavy on my neck. His arm across my chest and the other under my pillow, elbow bent and fingers curled into my hair.

This feels like forever.

I exhaled a breath. Knees bending, I tug my toes into the mattress and fought the urge to squirm.

Yep. That was me. I’d said that. Those words totally crossed my lips.

Not that I didn’t mean them, because I did. It wasn’t just the afterglow of fantastic kitchen sex speaking. I really, truly, felt this thing with Jamie becoming something bigger. Outlasting and enduring. This love overwhelmed me.

I could see it next month. And deep into the winter. I could picture Jamie a year older at twenty-nine with his hair longer and messy on my pillow. I could see next summer’s sun on his skin and feel the heat of it beneath my palms.

This feels like forever.

It did. So I said it.

And he said nothing. Nada. Zip.

At least not right away anyway. And definitely not in response to the honesty pouring out of my heart.

He said get you cleaned up and pork chops are burnt—what’re we orderin’. He told me I looked sweet after I changed into the well-worn shirt of his I stole. He pulled me on top of him and held me while we watched the Orioles spank the Yankees, easy conversation flowing like it typically did.

And then Jamie passed out after murmuring Night, babe into my hair and throwing his limbs around me.

But forever? There was no talk of forever. No baby paired with some meaningful, heart-heavy look. No feelin’ it, too. None of that.

My stomach was knotted tight. I couldn’t close my eyes. I felt restless.

Crap.

This was seriously bothering me.

Carefully, so I wouldn’t wake Jamie, I slid out from underneath his arm and out of bed, then I tiptoed out of the bedroom, padded down the hallway, took the stairs, and headed for the kitchen.

Peering into the fridge, I grabbed a Pure Leaf off the shelf and a baggie of cut-up veggies. I nudged the door closed with my hip and moved to stand at the island, then I snapped into a carrot while blank-staring at the countertop.

My thoughts spiraled farther and farther into freak-out central as I chewed. I never should’ve said it. I never should’ve said anything about forever.

I should’ve just told Jamie I loved him, or that was amazing, or you’re right, I never gave him that. I had options. Great options. Fantastic options. Options that could’ve and should’ve prompted a response that had absolutely nothing to do with food or the aftermath of sex.

Instead I chose to skip a thousand steps ahead and leave Jamie behind.

My little cartoon heart curled in on itself and pouted. Then a frightening thought entered my head. What if he never caught up to me? What if Jamie stayed at the I love you now step while I waited waited waited for him, and he never wanted to move?

What if he was forever happy at his step? Oh, God …

I shoved the rest of the carrot into my mouth and twisted off the cap of my sweet tea.

I never should’ve said it. You, Tori, are a giant, freaking—

“What’s on your mind, Legs?”

Jamie’s voice lifted my head and my eyes off the counter. I turned to look at him.

He had his shoulder leaned against the wall just inside the kitchen, arms folded across his wide, bare chest and feet crossed at the ankles. He was in his boxers. Nothing else. His hair was pulled back out of his face, a face that didn’t look a bit sleepy anymore. His eyes were bright. And he was wearing a smirk that read busted, like he’d just caught me staring at the spot on the counter I had to heavily disinfect earlier.